From Dust to Dominance

Lawi Lalang has quickly become one of the fastest runners in NCAA history.

The cloud of dust -- that's the first detail University of Arizona distance coach James Li remembers about his newest sensation, Lawi Lalang, who has exploded onto the NCAA scene in the past year. Li coached Lalang's brother, Boaz, now a world-class 800m runner with a 1:42.95 personal best, and flew to Eldoret, Kenya, in 2009 to visit Boaz. While there, Li watched the teenage Lalang compete in a 1500m time trial on a dirt track.

"Every time the runners came by they kicked up a big plume of dust," remembers Li, who was impressed by Lalang's smooth mechanics and natural form. Lalang finished in 3:59, a time that caught Li's eye given Lalang's unstructured training program, in which he ran, maybe, an hour a day and didn't count miles. One year later, Lalang had been recruited by Li and was on a plane bound for America. "I didn't know where Arizona was," the 21-year-old public health major says, reflecting on his first trip to the U.S. "I am glad it is warm there."

Lalang arrived in Tucson in December 2010. Less than two years later, he has run the 5,000m in 13:08.28, a collegiate indoor record, and collected three NCAA titles-one at the 2011 cross country championships and the 3K/5K double at the 2012 indoor nationals. "I wouldn't say I didn't expect him to be this good," Li says. "But I didn't expect his improvement to be this quick."

According to Li, his prodigy spent his first month on campus tallying 50-mile base weeks before conservatively starting workouts. Li describes him as "average" that first indoor season but acknowledges, "He still ran remarkable for someone who had been there for a month-3:59 for the mile." Lalang made noise during the outdoor season by sneaking up to second place in the 5,000m at NCAAs.

In the summer of 2011, Lalang stayed in Tucson and trained with teammate Stephen Sambu, a senior with 13:27.28 credentials. The partners pushed each other to the point where, "In August Lawi was totally a different person," says Li. A typical workout on the nearby golf course was five 1-mile repeats, starting at 4:48 and winding down to 4:20, with 2 1/2 minutes' rest between intervals. Then Lalang closed with a half mile in 2:08. "It was all on grass and hills," says Li, emphasizing the difficulty of the terrain.

Lalang not only hardened his body to 80-to 100-mile weeks but also revamped his racing skills. Still relatively new to college-level tactics, he used to charge hard from the gun, a practice that didn't always pan out well in the championship-style meets. "Now I am starting to sit back and kick at the end," he says. With his newly acquired fitness and 1:48 800m speed, he's developing tools that make him tough to defeat, just like another one of Li's athletes, Bernard Lagat. When comparing the two, Li says he thinks "Lawi is stronger aerobically" than Lagat was at his age. (Incidentally, it was Lagat who pulled Lalang to the 13:08 clocking at the Millrose Games in February before outkicking him to win in 13:07.15.) Given Lalang's vast potential, it's not unthinkable that his career path could follow a similar trajectory to Lagat's.

However, Lalang still has more to learn this fall. "Lawi is a driven and intense person and wants to be good," Li says. "Once he manages the intensity of his workload, he can really be good."

It's the delicate balance of stress and rest that got Lalang in trouble in June at the NCAA outdoor championships. A hamstring injury from overtraining derailed his 1500m/5,000m double attempt. He finished third in the 5,000m, 2 seconds out of first place, only to fall apart in the 1500m and slide from the front to the back of the pack over the last two laps. It was a rare setback in an otherwise stellar year of performances. When asked if his success surprised him, the normally reserved Lalang replies matter-of-factly. "Not really," he says, "because I have been working for it."